HE KNEW LINCOLN 




IDA M. TARBELL 




Book,/ /7g 



PRESENTED B^ 



L I he ol^! one 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 



BY 



r^ 



IDA M*^¥aRBELL 



AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 




NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

MCMIX 



Copynght, 1907, by McClure, FhiU^ps & Co. 



.15 






Copyright, 1907, by The Phillip. Pu>)li!=hing Company 



To My Mother 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
page 

"Come and set by the stove by the hour and 

tell stories arid talk and argue "... 4 

"Horace Greeley, he came in here to buy 

quinine " , .... 16 

"Aunt Sally, you couldn't a done nuthin' 

which would have pleased me better " 18 

"He just talked to us that time out of his 

heart'' 24 

"You're actin' like a lot of cowards. 
You've helped make this war, and 
you've got to help fight it" .... 26 

"We went out an the back stoop and sat down 

and talked and talked " . , « . o 30 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 



D 



' ' II — ^ ID I know Lincoln ? Well, 
I should say. See that 
chair there ? Take it, set 
down. That's right. Comfortable, 
ain't it.? Well, sir, Abraham Lincoln 
has set in that chair hours, him and 
Little *Doug,' and Logan and Judge 
Davis, all of 'em, all the big men in this 
State, set in that chair. See them marks ? 
Whittlin'. Judge Logan did it, all-firedest 
man to whittle. Always cuttin' away at 
something. I just got that chair new, paid 
six dollars for it, and I be blamed if I 
didn't come in this store and find him 
slashin' right into that arm. I picked up 
a stick and said: 'Here, Judge, s'posin' 
you cut this.' He just looked at me and 
3 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
then flounced out, mad as a wet hen. 
Mr. Lincoln was here, and you ought to 
heard him tee-hee. He was always here. 
Come and set by the stove by the hour 
and tell stories and talk and argue. I'd 
ruther heard the debates them men had 
around this old stove than heard Webster 
and Clay and Calhoun and the whole 
United States Senate. There wan't never 
no United States Senate that could beat 
just what I've heard right here in this 
room with Lincoln settin' in that very 
chair where you are this minute. 

" He traded here. I've got his accounts 
now. See here,*quinine, quinine, quinine.' 
Greatest hand to buy quinine you ever 
seen. Give it to his constituents. Oh, he 
knew how to be popular, Mr. Lincoln did. 
Cutest man in politics. I wan't a Whig. 
I was then and I am now a Democrat, a 
real old-fashioned Jackson Democrat, and 
4 




" Come and set by the stove by the hour and tell stories and 
talk and argue " 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
my blood just would rise up sometimes 
hearin' him discuss. He was a dangerous 
man — a durned dangerous man to have 
agin you. He'd make you think a thing 
when you knew it wan't so, and cute! 
Why, he'd just slide in when you wan't 
expectin' it and do some unexpected 
thing that just'd make you laugh, and 
then he'd get your vote. You'd vote for 
him because you liked him — just be- 
cause you liked him and because he was 
so all-fired smart, and do it when you 
knew he was wrong and it was agin the 
interest of the country. 

"Tell stories ? Nobody ever could beat 
him at that, and how he'd enjoy 'em, just 
slap his hands on his knees and jump up 
and turn around and then set down, 
laughin' to kill. Greatest man to git new 
yarns that ever lived, always askin', 
' Heard any new stories, Billy ? ' And if 
5 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
I had I'd trot 'em out, and how he'd 
laugh. Often and often when I've told 
him something new and he'd kin' a forgit 
how it went, he'd come in and say, ' Billy, 
how was that story you'se tellin' me ? ' 
and then I'd tell it all over. 

" He was away a lot, you know, ridin' 
the circuit along with some right smart 
lawyers. They had great doin's. Nuthin' 
to do evenings but to set around the 
tavern stove tellin' stories. That was 
enough when Lincoln was there. They 
was all lost without him. Old Judge Davis 
was boss of that lot, and he never would 
settle down till Lincoln got around. I've 
heard 'em laugh lots of times how the 
Judge would fuss around and keep askin', 
'Where's Mr. Lincoln, why don't Mr. 
Lincoln come ? Somebody go and find 
Lincoln,' and when Lincoln came he 
would just settle back and get him started 
6 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
to yarning, and there they'd set half the 
night. 

" When he got home he'd come right in 
here first time he was downtown and tell 
me every blamed yarn he'd heard. Whole 
crowd would get in here sometimes and 
talk over the trip, and I tell you it was 
something to hear 'em laugh. You could 
tell how Lincoln kept things stirred up. 
He was so blamed quick. Ever hear Judge 
Weldon tell that story about what Lin- 
coln said one day up to Bloomington 
when they was takin' up a subscription 
to buy Jim Wheeler a new pair of pants ? 
No ? Well, perhaps I oughten to tell it to 
you, ma says it ain't nice. It makes me 
mad to hear people objectin' to Mr. 
Lincoln's stories. Mebbe he did say 
words you wouldn't expect to hear at a 
church supper, but he never put no mean- 
in' into 'em that wouldn't 'a' been fit for 
7 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
the minister to put into a sermon, and 
that's a blamed sight more'n you can say 
of a lot of stories I've heard some of the 
people tell who stick up their noses at 
Mr. Lincoln's yarns. 

" Yes, sir, he used to keep things purty 
well stirred up on that circuit. That time 
I was a speakin' of he made Judge Davis 
real mad; it happened right in court and 
everybody got to gigglin' fit to kill. The 
Judge knew 'twas something Lincoln 
had said and he began to sputter. 

"'I am not going to stand this any 
longer, Mr. Lincoln, you're always dis- 
turbin' this court with your tomfoolery. 
I'm goin' to fine you. The clerk will fine 
Mr. Lincoln five dollars for disorderly 
conduct.' The boys said Lincoln never 
said a word; he just set lookin' down with 
his hand over his mouth, tryin' not to 
laugh. About a minute later the Judge, 
8 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
who was always on pins and needles till 
he knew all the fun that was goin' on, 
called up Weldon and whispered to him, 
* What was that Lincoln said ? ' Weldon 
told him, and I'll be blamed if the Judge 
didn't giggle right out loud there in court. 
The joke was on him then, and he knew 
it, and soon as he got his face straight he 
said, dignified like, ' The clerk may remit 
Mr. Lincoln's fine.' 

" Yes, he was a mighty cute story-teller, 
but he knew what he was about tellin' 
'em. I tell you he got more arguments out 
of stories than he did out of law books, 
and the queer part was you couldn't 
answer 'em — they just made you see it 
and you couldn't get around it. I'm a 
Democrat, but I'll be blamed if I didn't 
have to vote for Mr. Lincoln as President, 
couldn't help it, and it was all on account 
of that snake story of his'n illustratin' 
9 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
the takin' of slavery into Kansas and Ne- 
braska. Remember it ? I heard him tell 
it in a speech once. 

"*If I saw a pizen snake crawlin' in 
the road/ he says, 'I'd kill it with the 
first thing I could grab; but if I found it 
in bed with my children, I'd be mighty 
careful how I touched it fear I'd make it 
bite the children. If I found it in bed with 
somebody else's children I'd let them 
take care of it; but if I found somebody 
puttin' a whole batch of young snakes 
into an empty bed where mine or any- 
body's children was going to sleep pretty 
soon, I'd stop him from doin' it if I had 
to fight him.' Perhaps he didn't say ' fight 
him,' but somehow I always tell that 
story that way because I know I would 
and so would he or you or anybody. That 
was what it was all about when you come 
down to it. They was trying to put a batch 
10 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
of snakes into an empty bed that folks 
was goin' to sleep in. 

"Before I heard that story I'd heard 
Lincoln say a hundred times, settin' right 
there in that chair, where you are, * Boys, 
we've got to stop slavery or it's goin' to 
spread all over this country,' but, some- 
how, I didn't see it before. Them snakes 
finished me. Then I knew he'd got it right 
and I'd got to vote for him. Pretty tough, 
though, for me to go back on Little 
'Doug.' You see he was our great man, 
so we thought. Been to the United States 
Senate and knew all the big bugs all over 
the country. Sort o' looked and talked 
great. Wan't no comparison between him 
and Lincoln in looks and talk. Of course, 
we all knew he wan't honest, like Lincoln, 
but blamed if I didn't think in them days 
Lincoln was too all-fired honest — kind 
of innocent honest. He couldn't stand it 
11 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
nohow to have things said that wan't so. 
He just felt plumb bad about lies. I re- 
member once bein' in court over to De- 
catur when Mr. Lincoln was tryin' a case. 
There was a fellow agin him that didn't 
have no prejudices against lyin' in a law- 
suit, and he was tellin' how Lincoln had 
said this an' that, tryin' to mix up the 
jury. It was snowin' bad outside, and Mr. 
Lincoln had wet his feet and he was tryin' 
to dry 'em at the stove. He had pulled off 
one shoe and was settin' there holdin' up 
his great big foot, his forehead all puck- 
ered up, listenin' to that ornery lawyer's 
lies. All at onct he jumped up and hopped 
right out into the middle of the court- 
room. 

" ' Now, Judge,' he says, ' that ain't 
fair. I didn't say no sich thing, and he 
knows I didn't. I ain't goin' to have this 
jury all fuddled up.' 

n 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
"You never see anything so funny in a 
court-room as that big fellow standin' 
there in one stockin' foot, a shoe in his 
hand, talking so earnest. No, sir, he 
couldn't stand a lie. 

"'Think he was a big man, then.^' 
Nope — never did. Just as I said, we all 
thought Douglas was our big man. You 
know I felt kind of sorry for Lincoln 
when they began to talk about him for 
President. It seemed almost as if some- 
body was makin' fun of him. He didn't 
look like a president. I never had seen 
one, but we had pictures of 'em, all of 
'em from George Washington down, and 
they looked somehow as if they were dif- 
ferent kind of timber from us. Leastwise 
that's always the way it struck me. Now 
Mr. Lincoln he was just like your own 
folks — no trouble to talk to him, no 
siree. Somehow you just settled down 
13 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
comfortable to visitin' the minute he come 
in. I couldn't imagine George Washing- 
ton or Thomas Jefferson settin' here in 
that chair you're in tee-heein' over some 
blamed yarn of mine. None of us around 
town took much stock in his bein' elected 
at first — that is, none of the men, the 
women was different. They always be- 
Ueved in him, and used to say, ' You mark 
my word, Mr. Lincoln will be president. 
He's just made for it, he's good, he's the 
best man ever lived and he ought to be 
president.' I didn't see no logic in that 
then, but I dunno but there was some 
after all. 

" It seems all right now though. I reck- 
on I learned somethin' watchin' him be 
President — learned a lot — not that it 
made any difference in him. Funniest 
thing to see him goin' around in this 
town — not a mite changed — and the 
14 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
whole United States a watchin' him and 
the biggest men in the country runnin' 
after him and reporters hangin' around 
to talk to him and fellers makin' his pic- 
tures in ile and every other way. That 
didn't make no difference to him — only 
he didn't like bein' so busy he couldn't 
come in here much. He had a room over 
there in the Court House — room on that 
corner there. I never looked up that it 
wan't chuck full of people wantin' him. 
This old town was full of people all the 
time — delegations and committees and 
politicians and newspaper men. Only 
time I ever see Horace Greeley, he came 
in here to buy quinine. Mr. Lincoln sent 
him. Think of that, Horace Greeley buy- 
in' quinine of me, 

"No end of other great men around. 
He saw 'em all. Sometimes I used to step 
over and watch him — didn't bother him 
15 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
a mite to see a big man — not a mite. 
He'd jest shake hands and talk as easy 
and natural as if 'twas me — and he 
didn't do no struttin' either. Some of the 
fellers who come to see him looked as if 
they was goin' to be president, but Mr. 
Lincoln didn't put on any airs. No, sir, 
and he didn't cut any of his old friends 
either. Tickled to death to see 'em every 
time, and they all come — blamed if 
every old man and woman in Sangamon 
County didn't trot up here to see him. 
They'd all knowed him when he was 
keepin' store down to New Salem and 
swingin' a chain — surveyed lots of their 
towns for 'em — he had — and then he'd 
electioneered all over that county, too, 
so they just come in droves to bid him 
good-by. I was over there one day when 
old Aunt Sally Lowdy came in the door. 
Aunt Sally lived down near New Salem, 
16 





Horace Greeley^ he came in here to buy quinine " 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
and I expect she'd mended Mr. Lincoln's 
pants many a time; for all them old wo- 
men down there just doted on him and 
took care of him as if he was their own 
boy. Well, Aunt Sally stood lookin' kind 
a scared seein' so many strangers and not 
knowin' precisely what to do, when Mr. 
Lincoln spied her. Quick as a wink he 
said, 'Excuse me, gentlemen,' and he 
just rushed over to that old woman and 
shook hands with both of his'n and says, 
' Now, Aunt Sally, this is real kind of you 
to come and see me. How are you and 
how's Jake .^' (Jake was her boy.) ' Come 
right over here,' and he led her over, as if 
she was the biggest lady in Illinois, and 
says, ' Gentlemen, this is a good old friend 
of mine. She can make the best flapjacks 
you ever tasted, and she's baked 'em for 
me many a time.' Aunt Sally was jest as 
pink as a rosy she was so tickled. And 
17 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
she says, ' Abe ' — all the old folks in 
Sangamon called him Abe. They knowed 
him as a boy, but don't you believe any- 
body ever did up here. No, sir, we said 
Mr. Lincoln. He was like one of us, but 
he wan't no man to be over familiar with. 
'Abe,' says Aunt Sally, 'I had to come 
and say good-by. They say down our way 
they're goin' to kill you if they get you 
down to Washington, but I don't believe 
it. I just tell 'em you're too smart to let 
'em git ahead of you that way. I thought 
I'd come and bring you a present, knit 
'em myself,' and I'll be blamed if that old 
lady didn't pull out a great big pair of 
yarn socks and hand 'em to Mr. Lincoln. 
" Well, sir, it was the funniest thing to 
see Mr. Lincoln's face pucker up and his 
eyes twinkle and twinkle. He took them 
socks and held 'em up by the toes, one in 
each hand. They was the longest socks I 
18 




"*^m 



''Aimt Sally, you couldiit a done nuthin which would 
have pleased me belter" 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
ever see. *The lady got my latitude and 
longitude 'bout right, didn't she, gentle- 
men ? ' he says, and then he laid 'em 
down and he took Aunt Sally's hand and 
he says tender-like, *Aunt Sally, you 
couldn't a done nothin' which would 
have pleased me better. I'll take 'em to 
Washington and wear 'em, and think 
of yr- when I do it.' And I declare he 
said it so first thing I knew I was al- 
most blubberin', and I wan't the only 
one nuther, and I bet he did wear 'em in 
Washington. I can jest see him pullin' 
off his shoe and showin' them socks to 
Sumner or Seward or some other big bug 
that was botherin' him when he wanted 
to switch off on another subject and tellin' 
'em the story about Aunt Sally and her 
flapjacks. 

" * Was there much talk about his bein' 
killed ? ' Well, there's an awful lot of fools 
19 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
in this world and when they don't git what 
they want they're always for killin' some- 
body. Mr. Lincoln never let on, but I 
reckon his mail was pretty lively readin' 
sometimes. He got pictures of gallows 
and pistols and other things and lots of 
threats, so they said. I don't think that 
worried him much. He was more bothered 
seein' old Buchanan givin' the game 
away. *I wish I could have got down 
there before the horse was stole,' I heard 
him say onct in here, talkin' to some men. 
' But I reckon I can find the tracks when 
I do git there.' It was his cabinet bother- 
ed him most, I always thought. He didn't 
know the men he'd got to take well 
enough. Didn't know how far he could 
count on 'em. He and Judge Gillespie 
and one or two others was in here one 
day sittin' by the stove talkin,' and he 
says, ' Judge, I wisht I could take all you 
20 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
boys down to Washington with me, 
Democrats and all, and make a cabinet 
out of you. I'd know where every man 
would fit and we could git right down to 
work. Now, I've got to learn my men 
before I can do much.' 'Do you mean, 
Mr. Lincoln, you'd take a Democrat like 
Logan ? ' says the Judge, sort of shocked. 
'Yes, sir, I would; I know Logan. He's 
agin me now and that's all right, but if 
we have trouble you can count on Logan 
to do the right thing by the country, 
and that's the kind of men I want — them 
as will do the right thing by the country. 
'Tain't a question of Lincoln, or Demo- 
crat or Republican, Judge; it's a question 
of the country.' 

"Of course he seemed pretty cheerful 
always. He wan't no man to show out all 
he felt. Lots of them little stuck-up chaps 
that came out here to talk to him said, 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
solemn as owls, ^He don't realize the 
gravity of the situation.' Them's their 
words, 'gravity of the situation.' Think of 
that, Mr. Lincoln not realizing. They 
ought to heard him talk to us the night he 
went away. I'll never forgit that speech — 
nor any man who heard it. I can see him 
now just how he looked, standin' there on 
the end of his car. He'd been shakin' 
hands with the crowd in the depot, laugh- 
ing and talking, just like himself, but when 
he got onto that car he seemed suddint 
to be all changed. You never seen a face 
so sad in all the world. I tell you he had 
woe in his heart that minute, woe. He 
knew he was leavin' us for good, nuthin' 
else could explain the way he looked and 
what he said. He knew he never was 
comin' back alive. It was rainin' hard, 
but when we saw him standin' there in 
bare head, his great big eyes lookin' at 
22 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
US SO lovin' and mournful, every man of 
us took off his hat, just as if he'd been in 
church. You never heard him make a 
speech, of course? You missed a lot. 
Curious voice. You could hear it away 
off — kind of shrill, but went right to 
your heart — and that night it sounded 
sadder than anything I ever heard. You 
know I always hear it to this day, nights 
when the wind howls around the house. 
Ma says it makes her nervous to hear me 
talk about him such nights, but I can't 
help it; just have to let out 

" He stood a minute lookin' at us, and 
then he began to talk. There ain't a man 
in this town that heard him that ever for- 
got what he said, but I don't believe 
there's a man that ever said it over out 
loud — he couldn't, without cryin'. He 
just talked to us that time out of his heart. 
Somehow we felt all of a suddint how we 
23 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
loved him and how he loved us. We 
hadn't taken any stock in all that talk 
about his bein' killed, but when he said 
he was goin' away not knowin' where or 
whether ever he would return I just got 
cold all over. I begun to see that minute 
and everybody did. The women all fell to 
sobbin' and a kind of groan went up, and 
when he asked us to pray for him I don't 
believe that there was a man in that 
crowd, whether he ever went to church 
in his life, that didn't want to drop right 
down on his marrow bones and ask the 
Lord to take care of Abraham Lincoln 
and bring him back to us, where he be- 
longed. 

" ' Ever see him again ? ' Yes, onct 
down in Washington, summer of '64. 
Things was lookin' purty blue that sum- 
mer. Didn't seem to be anybody who 
thought he'd git reelected. Greeley was 
24 







He just talked to us that time out of Jiis heart 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
abusin' him in The Tribune for not mak- 
in' peace, and you know there was about 
half the North that always let Greeley 
do their thinkin' fer 'em. The war wan't 
comin' on at all — seemed as if they never 
would do nuthin'. Grant was hangin' on 
to Petersburg like a dog to a root, but it 
didn't seem to do no good. Same with 
Sherman, who was tryin' to take Atlanta. 
The country was just petered out with 
the everlastin' taxes an' fightin' an' dyin'. 
It wan't human nature to be patient any 
longer, and they just spit it out on Mr. 
Lincoln, and then, right on top of all the 
grumblin' and abusin', he up and made 
another draft. Course he was right, but I 
tell you nobody but a brave man would 
'a' done such a thing at that minute ; but 
he did it. It was hard on us out here. I 
tell you there wan't many houses in this 
country where there wan't mournin' goin' 
%5 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
on. It didn't seem as if we could stand any 
more blood lettin.' Some of the boys 
round the State went down to see him 
about it. They came back lookin' pretty 
sheepish. Joe Medill, up to Chicago, told 
me about it onct. He said, * We just told 
Mr. Lincoln we couldn't stand another 
draft. We was through sendin' men down 
to Petersburg to be killed in trenches. He 
didn't say nuthin'; just stood still, lookin' 
down till we'd all talked ourselves out; 
and then, after a while, he lifted up his 
head, and looked around at us, slow-like; 
and I tell you, Billy, I never knew till 
that minute that Abraham Lincoln could 
get mad clean through. He was just white 
he was that mad. "Boys," he says, "you 
ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You're 
actin' like a lot of cowards. You've helped 
make this war, and you've got to help 
fight it. You go home and raise them men 
26 



'1 




'^Yoiire actbi like a lot of cowards Yoii've helped 
make this icar, and youve got to help fight ^t 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
and don't you dare come down here again 
blubberin' about what I tell you to do. I 
won't stan' it." We was so scared we 
never said a word. We just took our hats 
and went out hke a lot of school-boys. 
Talk about Abraham Lincoln bein' easy ! 
When it didn't matter mebbe he was 
easy, but when it did you couldn't stir 
him any more'n you could a mountain.' 
'* Well, I kept hearin' about the trouble 
he was havin' with everybody, and I just 
made up my mind I'd go down and see 
him and swap yarns and tell him how we 
was all countin' on his gettin' home. 
Thought maybe it would cheer him up to 
know we set such store on his comin' 
home if they didn't want him for presi- 
dent. So I jest picked up and went right 
off. Ma was real good about my goin'. 
She says, * I shouldn't wonder if 'twould 
do him good, William. And don't you ask 
27 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
him no questions about the war nor 
about politics. You just talk home to him 
and tell him some of them foolish stories 
of yourn.' 

" Well, I had a brother in Washington, 
clerk in a department — awful set up 
'cause he had an office — and when 1 got 
down there I told him I'd come to visit 
Mr. Lincoln. He says, ' William, be you a 
fool ? Folks don't visit the President of 
the United States without an invitation, 
and he's too busy to see anybody but the 
very biggest people in this administra- 
tion. Why, he don't even see me,' he says. 
Well, it made me huffy to hear him talk. 
' Isaac,' I says, ' I don't wonder Mr. Lin- 
coln don't see you. But it's different with 
me. Him and me is friends.' 

"'Weir he says, 'you've got to have 
cards anyway.' 'Cards,' I says, 'what 
for ? What kind r 'Why,' he says, ' visit- 
28 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
in' cards — with your name on.' ' Well/ 
I says, *it's come to a pretty pass, if an 
old friend like me can't see Mr, Lincoln 
without sendin' him a piece of paste- 
board. I'd be ashamed to do such a thing, 
Isaac Brown. Do you suppose he's for- 
gotten me ? Needs to see my name printed 
out to know who I am ? You can't make 
me believe any such thing,' and I walked 
right out of the room, and that night I 
footed it up to the Soldiers' Home where 
Mr. Lincoln was livin' then, right among 
the sick soldiers in their tents. 

"There was lots of people settin' 
around in a little room, waitin' fer him, 
but there wan't anybody there I knowed, 
and I was feelin' a little funny when a 
door opened and out came little John 
Nicolay. He came from down this way, 
so I just went up and says, ' How'd you 
do, John ; where's Mr Lincoln ? ' 
29 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
Well, John didn't seem over glad to see 
me. 

" * Have you an appintment with Mr. 
Lincoln ? ' he says. 

" 'No, sir,' I says; 'I ain't, and it ain't 
necessary. Mebbe it's all right and fittin' 
for them as wants post-offices to have 
appintments, but I reckon Mr. Lincoln's 
old friends don't need 'em, so you just 
trot along, Johnnie, and tell him Billy 
Brown's here and see what he says.' Well, 
he kind a flushed up and set his lips to- 
gether, but he knowed me, and so he went 
off. In about two minutes the door popped 
open and out came Mr. Lincoln, his face 
all lit up. He saw me first thing, and he 
laid holt of me and just shook my hands 
fit to kill. 'Billy,' he says, 'now I am 
glad to see you. Come right in. You're 
goin' to stay to supper with Mary and 
me.' 

30 



rr 




We went out on the back stoop and sat down and talked 
and talked " 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
" Didn't I know it ? Think bein' presi- 
dent would change him — not a mite. 
Well, he had a right smart lot of people 
to see, but soon as he was through we 
went out on the back stoop and set down 
and talked and talked. He asked me 
about pretty nigh everybody in Spring- 
field. I just let loose and told him about 
the weddin's and births and the funerals 
and the buildin', and I guess there wan't 
a yarn I'd heard in the three years and a 
half he'd been away that I didn't spin for 
him. Laugh — you ought to a heard him 
laugh — just did my heart good, for I 
could see what they'd been doin' to him. 
Always was a thin man, but, Lordy, he 
was thinner'n ever now, and his face was 
kind a drawn and gray — enough to make 
you cry. 

" Well, we had supper and then talked 
some more, and about ten o'clock 1 start- 
31 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
ed downtown. Wanted me to stay all 
night, but I says to myself, 'Billy, don't 
you overdo it. You've cheered him up, 
and you better light out and let him re- 
member it when he's tired.' So I said, 
* Nope, Mr. Lincoln, can't, goin' back to 
Springfield to-morrow. Ma don't like to 
have me away and my boy ain't no great 
shakes keepin' store.' 'Billy,' he says, 
' what did you come down here for ? ' ' I 
come to see you, Mr. Lincoln.' *But you 
ain't asked me for anything, Billy. What 
is it ? Out with it. Want a post-office ?' 
he said, gigglin', for he knowed I didn't. 
' No, Mr. Lincoln, just wanted to see you 
— felt kind a lonesome — been so long 
since I'd sen you, and I was afraid I'd 
forgit some of them yarns if I didn't un- 
load soon.' 

" Well, sir, you ought to seen his face as 
he looked at me. 

32 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
"'Billy Brown,' he says, slow-like, 'do 
you mean to tell me you came all the way 
from Springfield, Illinois, just to have a 
visit with me, that you don't want an 
oflBce for anybody, nor a pardon for any- 
body, that you ain't got no complaints in 
your pockets, nor any advice up your 
sleeve ? ' 

'"Yes, sir,' I says, ' that's about it, and 
I'll be durned if I wouldn't go to Europe 
to see you, if I couldn't do it no other way, 
Mr. Lincoln.' 

"Well, sir, I never was so astonished 
in my life. He just grabbed my hand and 
shook it nearly off, and the tears just 
poured down his face, and he says, ' Billy, 
you never'll know what good you've done 
me. I'm homesick, Billy, just plumb 
homesick, and it seems as if this war 
never would be over. Many a night I can 
see the boys a-dyin' on the fields and can 
33 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
hear their mothers cryin' for 'em at home, 
and I can't help 'em, Billy. I have to send 
them down there. We've got to save the 
Union, Billy, we've got to.' 

"* Course we have, Mr. Lincoln,' I 
says, cheerful as I could, ' course we have. 
Don't you worry. It's most over. You're 
goin' to be reelected, and you and old 
Grant's goin' to finish this war mighty 
quick then. Just keep a stiff upper lip, 
Mr. Lincoln, and don't forget them yarns 
I told you.' And I started out. But seems 
as if he couldn't let me go. ' Wait a min- 
ute, Billy,' he says, * till I get my hat and 
rU walk a piece with you.' It was one of 
them still sweet-smellin' summer nights 
with no end of stars and you ain't no idee 
how pretty 'twas walkin' down the road. 
There was white tents showin' through 
the trees and every little way a tall soldier 
standin' stock still, a gun at his side. 
34 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
Made me feel mighty curious and solemn. 
By-and-by we come out of the trees to a 
sightly place where you could look all 
over Washington — see the Potomac and 
clean into Virginia. There was a bench 
there and we set down and after a while 
Mr. Lincoln he begun to talk. Well, sir, 
you or nobody ever heard anything like 
it. Blamed if he didn't tell me the whole 
thing — all about the war and the gener- 
als and Seward and Sumner and Con- 
gress and Greeley and the whole blamed 
lot. He just opened up his heart if I do 
say it. Seemed as if he'd come to a p'int 
where he must let out. I dunno how long 
we set there — must have been nigh 
morning, fer the stars begun to go out 
before he got up to go. ' Good-by, Billy,' 
he says. ' you're the first person I ever 
unloaded onto, and I hope you won't 
think I'm a baby,' and then we shook 
35 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
hands again, and I walked down to town 
and next day I come home. 

" Tell you what he said ? Nope, I can't. 
Can't talk about it somehow. Fact is, I 
never told anybody about what he said 
that night. Tried to tell ma onct, but she 
cried, so I give it up. 

"Yes, that's the last time I seen him — 
last time alive. 

" Wan't long after that things began to 
look better. War began to move right 
smart, and, soon as it did, there wan't no 
use talkin' about anybody else for Presi- 
dent. I see that plain enough, and, just as 
I told him, he was reelected, and him an' 
Grant finished up the war in a hurry. I 
tell you it was a great day out here when 
we heard Lee had surrendered. 'Twas 
just like gettin' converted to have the war 
over. Somehow the only thing I could 
think of was how glad Mr. Lincoln would 
36 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
be. Me and ma reckoned he'd come 
right out and make us a visit and get 
rested, and we began right off to make 
plans about the reception we'd give 
him — brass band — parade — speeches 
fireworks — everything. Seems as if I 
couldn't think about anything else. I was 
comin' down to open the store one mor- 
nin', and all the way down I was plannin' 
how I'd decorate the windows and how 
I'd tie a flag on that old chair, when I see 
Hiram Jones comin' toward me. He 
looked so old and all bent over I didn't 
know what had happened. 'Hiram,' I 
says, ' what's the matter ? Be you 
sick.?' 

" * Billy,' he says, and he couldn't hard- 
ly say it, * Billy, they've killed Mr. Lin- 
coln.' 

" Well, I just turned cold all over, and 
then I flared up. 'Hiram Jones,' I says, 
37 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
* you're lyin,' you're crazy. How dare you 
tell me that ? It ain't so.' 

" * Don't Billy,' he says, ' don't go on so. 
I ain't lyin'. It's so. He'll never come 
back, Billy. He's dead!' And he fell to 
sobbin' out loud right there in the street, 
and somehow I knew it was true. 

" I come on down and opened the door. 
People must have paregoric and castor 
ile and liniment, no matter who dies ; but 
I didn't put up the shades. I just sat here 
and thought and thought and groaned 
and groaned. It seemed that day as if the 
country was plumb ruined and I didn't 
care much. All I could think of was him. 
He wan't goin' to come back. He wouldn't 
never sit here in that chair again. He was 
dead. 

"For days and days 'twas awful here. 
Waitin' and waitin'. Seemed as if that 
funeral never would end. I couldn't bear 
38 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
to think of him bein' dragged around the 
country and havin' all that fuss made over 
him. He always hated fussin' so. Still, I 
s'pose I'd been mad if they hadn't done it. 
Seemed awful, though. I kind a felt that 
he belonged to us now, that they ought to 
bring him back and let us have him now 
they'd killed him. 

" Of course they got here at last, and I 
must say it was pretty grand. All sorts 
of big bugs. Senators and Congress- 
men, and officers in grand uniforms and 
music and flags and crape. They certainly 
didn't spare no pains givin' him a funeral. 
Only we didn't want 'em. We wanted to 
bury him ourselves, but they wouldn't 
let us. I went over onct where they'd laid 
him out for folks to see. I reckon I won't 
tell you about that. I ain't never goin' to 
get that out of my mind. I wisht a million 
times I'd never seen him lyin' there black 
89 



HE KNEW LINCOLN 
and changed — that I could only see him 
as he looked sayin' 'good-by' to me up 
to the Soldiers' Home in Washington 
that night. 

" Ma and me didn't go to the cemetery 
with 'em. I couldn't stan' it. Didn't seem 
right to have sich goin's on here at home 
where he belonged, for a man like him. 
But we go up often now, ma and me does, 
and talk about him. Blamed if it don't 
seem sometimes as if he was right there 
— might step out any minute and say 
* Hello, Billy, any new stories .?' 

"Yes. I knowed Abraham Lincoln; 
knowed him well; and I tell you there 
wan't never a better man made. Least- 
wise I don't want to know a better one. 
He just suited me — Abraham Lincoln 
did." 

THE END 

THK MCCLDRE FRESS, NEW YORK 



